The Facebook.

There’s a lot of negativity in my Facebook news feed (from others) today. Some people seem to be having a bad day, others are dealing with misconstrued gossip and yet others are having smack said about their family members.

What an abuse of technology.

Though I tend to tweet more than I FB (and I don’t G+ at all anymore), I still read Facebook on a regular basis, even if it’s just to catch up on birthdays and wish people good tidings on their day of celebration. Sometimes I write witty things here and there, other times I might post a few pictures of randomness. There are quite a few things about Facebook that make me insane, hence the reason that I’m not as invested in the platform as I used to be.

One of the things that absolutely amazes me about some folks on Facebook is how seriously they take things on there. Folks can post something absolutely random that sounds like it could be true and they take it as 100% accuracy and don’t bother to research to see if it’s really true or not. For example, I could go onto the Utica page and post something like “Olive Garden is coming to New Hartford! It’s moving into the old AT&T building on Commercial Drive” and probably within two days I’d read something about Olive Garden moving into the old AT&T building via Twitter or the Topix boards.

Ridiculous.

Why would Olive Garden move into the old AT&T building, especially since said building was vacated after an irate customer went in and shot some customer service reps because he was pissed about his account? And why would Olive Garden need a big tower in their parking lot anyways? And why would Olive Garden even move to Utica, New York, where good, traditional Italian restaurants are plentiful and the folks here don’t want an Italian restaurant that amounts to boil-in-a-bag.

I’m digressing.

My point is, like anything and everything on the Internet, you need to check and cross check the facts of anything you read, including the stuff on Facebook. It’s kind of like relying on one news source for your news; compare what you hear from Fox News with what you hear from MSNBC with you read in your local newspaper and there’s a better chance you’re going to get a better picture of what’s going on with whatever they’re all talking about. If you see something on Facebook about a family member or a friend that seems startling, do something crazy like pick up the phone and speak with that person to see if the facts are true or not. And for pity’s sake, don’t bring people you don’t know into the equation and start speculating or being rude or obnoxious just because Facebook has decided to show updates from people you don’t know on something that you might have an interest in.

The progression of technology seems to be fueling a regressing in common sense these days when we need more common sense than ever to keep track of it all. People need to remember how to think.